DI: Notre Dame Downs Marquette in Chicago

WILMETTE, Ill. – Junior attackman John Scioscia tallied six goals and one assist as the No. 4 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team defeated Marquette, 17-5, in non-conference action Tuesday afternoon at Loyola Academy. The game was the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

The six goals from Scioscia, who entered Tuesday’s contest with two career tallies, were the most for a Notre Dame player since Ryan Hoff had six against Ohio State during the 2009 campaign. Notre Dame’s 17 goals were the most for the Irish since a 19-7 win over Dartmouth in 2009.

After Marquette tied the game 1-1 with 40 seconds left in the first quarter, Notre Dame (7-2) scored nine straight goals to take command of the contest. The Irish had 11 different goal scorers in the game.

The Fighting Irish surge began with one second left in the opening quarter when Scioscia netted his first goal of the afternoon. Senior attackman Sean Rogers assisted on the tally. Rogers had an assist on three of Scioscia’s goals in addition to scoring one himself.

Scioscia notched three second-quarter goals, while Tyler Kimball, Matt Kavanagh and Ryan Mix also scored in the period to give Notre Dame an 8-1 lead at halftime. Kavanagh, a freshman attackman, was the only other Irish player with multiple goals on the day as he scored twice in addition to dishing out two assists.

Goals from Rogers and Steve Murphy pushed the Irish lead to nine (10-1) early in the second half. Marquette’s Kyle Whitlow snapped the Irish uprising at the 8:55 mark of the third period. Scioscia’s fifth goal gave Notre Dame an 11-2 advantage after three quarters of play.

Marquette (2-5) returned to the scoring column early in the fourth quarter on a Connor Bernal goal. Kavanagh put the Irish back up by nine and a man-up deposit from Scioscia upped the lead to 10 (13-3) at the 9:57 mark of the final quarter.

Following another goal from Bernal, Notre Dame’s Kyle Runyon, Westy Hopkins, Tyler Brenneman and Andy Will scored consecutively to give Notre Dame a 13-goal advantage (17-4). Marquette’s Phil McFarland had the final tally of the day.

Notre Dame scored first in the contest on a Ryan Foley goal at the 8:10 mark of the first quarter. Ben Dvorak answered back for the Golden Eagles with under a minute remaining in the opening period.

The Fighting Irish had a 38-20 advantage in shots. Senior goalie John Kemp made five saves and allowed three goals in 47:25 of play for the Irish. He was replaced by sophomore Conor Kelly, who made one stop and surrendered two goals in 12:35 between the pipes in his collegiate debut. JJ Sagle had seven saves and allowed 14 goals in 55:20 of play for the Golden Eagles.

“We loved the opportunity to play here (at Loyola Academy),” Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “This was an opportunity against a team we didn’t have a history with and we hadn’t started a home-and-home series with them yet and we decided to play the first one in Chicago. It was good for both of us coming from the Midwest and it was good to be able to play it at a Catholic school, which is a pretty neat thing.”

Notre Dame returns to BIG EAST play Sunday at Providence. Faceoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. (ET) at Lennon Family Field.